So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.

—Exodus 31:16-17

I’ve got to start this week by confessing that I’m basically preaching to myself on this one, but maybe you can also relate. It is hard to figure out how to balance work and rest. As little sense as it makes, I quite literally struggle on both ends of the spectrum. 

There are times when I allow myself to get so overwhelmed with work that my husband has to come help me pull back mentally and emotionally (really not sure how I survived without him). But I can also glorify and insist on rest to an unhealthy degree as well because as much fun as it might be to do absolutely nothing the entire weekend, in most cases, that is excess and results in stress and overwork later to catch up on what I refused to do. 

Basically, I’m a mess when it comes to finding balance in this area of my life. 

I think for me at least, the struggle comes because both are so valuable. We know from experience that rest is necessary to work and work provides for our needs, but this passage reveals more about both sides of the seesaw.

Let’s start with work. It seems like these verses are mostly focused on rest, but even so, work is almost an underlying given. God is reminding His people to take a break from work because it’s easy to give our work control over our lives that it shouldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, these verses reveal something really amazing about work—it’s the way we join our Heavenly Father in His act of creation.

Think of the joy and intimacy of a young son imitating his father at work. Or a little boy walking in his father’s footsteps on a walk. That is what’s offered to us through work. And our work doesn’t have to be traditionally artistic or creative to take advantage of this. The very fact that we are being productive, moving toward, and achieving goals is fulfilling because in doing so, we are living up to our status as images of a Creator God.

And rest is just as important. It’s not just something to be experienced for our physical benefit, but something that is cause for celebration—and all God’s tired teachers about to enjoy summer vacation said amen. 

But rest isn’t just important because we need it physically. Engaging in rest regularly and in the right proportion and context is a sign of covenantal relationship with and submission to God. It is a mark, a way to distinguish us from others. It’s also a physical demonstration of our trust in God and His promise to provide for us. If work is imitating God as Creator like a child imitating his father, resting would be jumping up in His lap and laying our head on His chest. It’s an act of relationship, intimacy, trust, and contentment.

So what does it look like?

Like I said before, I’m definitely not an expert on this one, but here are a few observations that might help us figure out what an ideal balance might look like.

1. We get two ratios for what our work/rest balance should look like. From scientific knowledge, we know that we need physical rest through sleep roughly 8 hours per day which is about ⅓ of a day. In Scripture, we see that we need rest from the stress of work once per week.
   
   The first type of rest is a short break from work mostly for physical reasons. The second type is a longer form of rest from the difficulty and stress of work. It’s related to celebration and, given the mention of passing the practice down to later generations, social connection. 
2. According to both of these ratios, work of some sort (professional work, housework, the work of raising kids, etc) should take up most of our time. That is okay and healthy as long as rest is regularly scheduled, protected by boundaries, and observed.
3. The Sabbath, which most of us now celebrate on Sunday, does not seem to be about physical rest, even though I will concede that Sunday afternoon naps are clearly the best. Instead, this rest is for relationship. It is meant to be time to step back from stress and worry to remind ourselves of our faith in and relationship with God.
   
   It’s also time to find solace from stress through fostering our relationships with our loved ones. Shabbat, or the Sabbath, was and I think still is, a social event for the Jews. It involves studying Scripture together as a family, going to synagogue to pray, and having Shabbat dinner. It was a protected time to spend with family, friends, and God.

As I’ve studied these verses, I’ve noticed that there are some places where I sort of stumbled onto the right idea in places and some where I’ve completely missed the point. My commitment this week is to work on building some boundaries to help me enjoy a better balance between work and rest. I hope you’ll join me in exploring God’s plan for balancing work and rest in our lives.